


Needless Kareth

by IShouldBeWriting



Category: Jewish Scripture & Legend, Post-Biblical Jewish RPF
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Gleeful use of Socratic discourse, Halachic Law, Kashrut, Legal loopholes big enough to drive a tractor-trailer through, Medieval Toledo Spain, Midrash, Rabbinical Sophistry, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-08
Updated: 2017-03-08
Packaged: 2018-10-01 04:27:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10180649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IShouldBeWriting/pseuds/IShouldBeWriting
Summary: When you are unintentionally made into a vampire,karethis needless with the application of a little rabbinical sophistry on your behalf





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facingthenorthwind (spacegandalf)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacegandalf/gifts).



The last of the day’s light dipped below the high crest atop which Toledo had been built as Maria made her way between the outer battlements and up the winding streets.  Her destination wasn’t far but seemed so tonight as she considered the burden she carried.

 

_ I am forsworn.  I will be forced to live a life apart from my family, my heritage, my faith.  And for what?  A thing over which I had no control. _

 

She hadn’t asked for the raiders that’d come while she visited her sister to attend the birth of her first nephew and she remembered little of that night.  Glimpses and flashes of blood and fire and screaming. But in the smoke and rubble of dawn, they had both been alive and so had the babe.  They had thanked Ha’shem for their miracle, even as they bandaged the place where Maria’s shoulder had been savaged as if by an animal.

 

The glow and the warm scent of the synagogue’s candles welcomed her one last time as she stepped inside, humbled by the beauty of the place.

 

“Maria,” a voice as warm as the candles greeted her. “How is your sister and the new babe?”

 

“There were raiders, Shmuel.” Her eyes were full of sorrow as she met the rabbi’s. “But Blanca and the little one are safe.  They have returned to the city with me while.”

 

The rabbi murmured his thanks to god for their safety.

 

“Then what brings you here tonight?”

 

She looked at him, eyes full of the trouble she still could not speak.

 

“Please, Maria, whatever it is,” he encouraged guiding her to sit inside the sanctuary.

 

“I must ask you for a difficult thing, Shmuel.   _ Kareth. _ ”

 

His thick black eyebrows furrowed. “That is serious. Explain, please.”

 

And she did, telling him with tears of shame of the raiders and her ensuing unnatural hungers.

 

“That will not be necessary.” He held up a hand.  “You are not the first of the People to become one of Lilith’s children since the  _ Reconquista _ .”

 

“But how,” she cried. “How, Rabbi, how can I remain observant, maintain even our most basic laws?”

 

“I will explain.  If you bite the inside of your mouth while eating it is not considered treif. The blood has not been exposed to the air, to the view of others where it might be mistaken for that of an animal.  For it is the which Torah states that we are forbidden from consuming the blood of animals. But the ban against consuming the blood of our fellow man is one discussed in the Midrashim. Can a law of man be so codified that we would shun one of our own?  We may offer a sacrifice of a creature’s blood to Ha’Shem in atonement but the lifeforce that sings within contains the spark of the Divine, hence it being prohibited to be consumed  _ by humans. _ But you are no longer entirely of our kind and so this prohibition no longer applies.”

 

His face sympathetic, as kind as ever. 

 

“You are of the People, but you are also of the Lilim now, Maria. But like any other, your body still requires nourishment.  Would you deprive it of that?  The taking of one’s own life is a wrong more serious than that which you have, through no fault of your own, become.  And as for the matter of  _ shechita _ to which you must still adhere...  So long as you take without intent to cause pain or harm, you have fulfilled the spirit of the law to the fullest extent of your ability.”

 

He rose, beckoning her to follow.

  
“Now come.  Together we will find those among our own who are understanding and will give freely that which you need.”


End file.
